Oakland County gets a taste of DIA with inside-out'

Residents of Pontiac and four other Oakland County cities won’t have to go far for a taste of the Detroit Institute of Arts this spring.

As part of its Inside Out program, the DIA is installing reproductions of several paintings in 13 different cities, including Hazel Park,Rochester Hills, Novi and Walled Lake.

Joan Walton, Inside Out project manager for the DIA, was participating in the installation of seven works of art throughout downtown Pontiac on Thursday.

The Inside Out program takes “high quality reproductions from the museum and puts them outside in surprising places,” Walton said.

The reproductions are “basically a vinyl sticker on a piece of aluminum, and we put them in a regular frame and marine varnish the frame to protect it from the elements,” she said.

In Pontiac, paintings like “The Wedding Dance” and “The Nightmare” have been installed, with a label and a description alongside.

“We try to match the art to the locations and the cities in some respects, but there is no overriding theme,” Walton said.

Now in its fourth year, the program chose nearly all 13 participating cities from a waiting list this year. Inside Out initially featured 40 pieces, but curators this year chose 80 pieces out of a total of 86 possibilities.

“(Drawing visitors to the DIA) is the end product, and that’s great, but really (the goal is) to just engage people in the community with our collection,” Walton said.

The works of art can be reused each year, and they’re rarely targeted for vandalism.

“We’ve done almost 500 installations and had very, very few incidents,” Walton said.